Crocker Chair Co - Sheboygan WI

We purchased six chairs and a table at a thrift store in Nashville, TN for a paltry sum.
Not too long afterward, the leg popped off of one of the chairs and then we started to notice that the others were rather rickety as well.

Needing a new hobby, we decided to set about refinishing, restoring, but hopefully not regretting ownership of these chairs.

We knew they were old. After a late night of research with only a half-visible maker's mark available to me....

I discovered that these chairs are from the Crocker Chair Company of Sheboygan, WI.

http://www.stickleyera.info/AmericanMakersA-D.htm

The company went out of business in 1924 apparently (thanks Great Depression :/ ) - so they are at least that old. Digging through a couple of digitized catalogs on a Wisconsin library site (amazing world we live in), while not able to place the exact make / model of the chairs we have, I'd put these somewhere between 1920 - 1924 based on similar aesthetics.

So what would any sane person do upon finding they have antique chairs? Why this of course:

I'll document the restoration (or regretting) process here. I did (thankfully) relatively little extra damage in the blowing up of the chair. It was interesting to find that many of the dowels also had perpendicular finishing nails in them. Those were not fun to remove.

Off to clean these pieces!